


nerve

by jaylocked



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Elevators, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, a sketchy understanding of how elevators even work, twinyard confusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 10:38:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8398324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaylocked/pseuds/jaylocked
Summary: The first time it happens, Neil writes it off as the guy not noticing him. The second time, the short, blond man stares directly at Neil as the elevator doors slide shut and makes absolutely no move to avert the situation.Neil takes that as an open declaration of war.





	

**Author's Note:**

> warnings for excessive swearing and confined spaces (stuck in an elevator)
> 
> title from song by half moon run of the same name.
> 
> originally posted on tumblr. written for the prompt: "Hi, I've a prompt: neil meets aaron(in an elevator)& aaron is v rude(doesn't hold the door as it's closing),later neil meets andrew(in the same elevator)thinking he's aaron so neil's pissed & rude(the elevator breaks & they're both stuck for hours ;)"

The first time it happens, Neil writes it off as the guy not noticing him. Sure, he’s running right at the closing doors of the elevator and yelling for him to keep the doors open, but he could be deaf, or even just one of those people who don’t function before they’ve had their first cup of coffee.

The second time, the short, blond man stares directly at Neil as the elevator doors slide shut and makes absolutely no move to avert the situation.

Neil takes that as an open declaration of war.

It’s a subtle war, of course, as any war fought early in the morning ought to be. Neil and Apartment 5A (Neil has watched him leave the apartment enough times to know where he lives) seem to be on eerily similar morning schedules. Just as Neil sets off for his morning jog, 5A is going to work.

The elevator is slow on the best of days, so waiting as it goes down five floors and then back up is agonizing. It’s an older building, sure, but Neil’s apartment is decently modern. It’s just the elevator that’s stuck in the Stone Age, really.

Neil and 5A alternate days on who wins (winning, of course, is defined only as reaching the elevator in time to watch the doors close on the other person). It doesn’t happen every day, but it happens enough for Neil to feel a vague emotional investment in the whole ridiculous ordeal.

The day Neil realizes he can press all the buttons in the elevator as he gets out and inconvenience 5A even more, well…Matt actually does a double take when Neil gets back to the apartment after his run with a smile on his face.

Neil doesn’t know much about 5A. He’s short and blond, with boring brown eyes. He wears blue scrubs some days, so he probably works at the hospital down the road. On the rare occasion they end up riding down five floor together, not a single word has been exchanged. His mailbox doesn’t have any label on it.

Neil doesn’t even have any kind of name to think murderously at him as the doors close with Neil on the wrong side.

Matt thinks that Neil is making the entire thing up, because apparently Matt and 5A have been known to exchange ‘sup nods in the hall, something that Neil cannot fathom the 5A that Neil knows doing. Neil has also never seen 5A at any other time than between 6:10 and 6:20am, which admittedly does add some plausibility to the idea that it’s a long-running hallucination.

It’s with this in mind that Neil comes to a stop upon entering his building after work and seeing 5A in front of the elevator. The doors ding open as Neil stares at 5A. He contemplates taking the stairs, even with their weird garbage-and-urine smell, for a long moment before he stalks into the elevator behind the man.

5A leans forwards, presses the button for the fifth floor, and then has the _audacity_ to ask Neil, “Which floor?”

Neil glares at him until the other man raises an eyebrow and steps back. 5A looks a bit different after 5pm: he’s wearing black armbands that Neil’s never seen before, and his posture seems more slumped. He shoots Neil a smirk and Neil looks away hastily, scowling.

How _dare_ that fucker pretend like they don’t know each? It’s been _months_ of elevator warfare!

Neil is fuming to himself with such intensity that it takes him far too long to realize that the elevator has come to an abrupt stop. The doors remain closed, the needle above them perched somewhere between 2 and 3. The lights flicker and then die, casting everything in shadow.

“Great,” 5A mutters, jabbing at the Help button with no change. Neil’s eyes adjust to the darkness, and he can just make out the outline of 5A across the elevator.

 _I knew I should’ve taken the stairs,_ Neil thinks mutinously. The lights remain stubbornly off.

5A flips open a phone, jabs at the keys, and then holds it up to his ear. Neil can’t help but listen to his side of the conversation.

“Aaron? Yeah, I don’t want to talk to you either, asshole.” Neil figures he’s just a rude dick to everybody, then. “I’m in the elevator and it’s stuck between the second and third floors. Fuck, are you serious? I told you we shouldn’t have moved into this piece of shit complex. Yeah, call them.”

He hangs up with no goodbye and glances towards Neil, who’s slumped against the wall behind him.

“Hope you’re not claustrophobic,” 5A says in what Neil chooses to interpret as a snide tone. “Looks like we could be here a while. Power’s out in the whole building. Somebody should be looking into it, though.”

Neil shoots him a suspicious glance. He seems sincere, and it’s not like there’s anything he has to gain from being trapped in the elevator with Neil, but it still could be some kind of an elaborate setup.

Neil slides his own piece of shit phone from his pocket and speed dials Matt.

“Neil, my main man! To what do I owe the pleasure?” Matt chirps when the line connects. Neil suppresses a long-suffering sigh.

“I’m trapped in the elevator with 5A,” Neil says as quietly as he possibly can, but he can feel 5A’s eyes on him nonetheless. Matt’s laughter is probably loud enough for him to hear it anyway. “Just thought you’d want to know where I am.”

“Thanks for the update,” Matt replies, laughter still audible in his voice, although he’s quieted down some. “If you turn up dead, I’ll send the police his way. Is somebody coming to help or something?”

“Yeah, it should be fine.” Neil glances towards his watch and lets out a groan. His eyes have adjusted enough for him to just make out the time. “Did you remember to tape the game tonight? I’ll definitely miss the start of it at this point.”

“Sorry, dude, but I totally forgot. And I’m out with Dan–”

“The power’s out anyway,” Neil realizes, sliding along the wall to the ground. 5A, for once in his midget life, towers over him. “I’ll talk to you later. Have fun with Dan.”

He drops the phone on the carpet next to him and tries not to bang his head backwards against the wall. 5A is openly watching him, smirk still in place.

“So,” 5A finally drawls, after a few long moments of silence. “You know where I live, then? Keeping tabs?”

Neil rolls his eyes. “There’s only four apartments on our floor, genius. It’s not so hard to figure out.”

The smirk grows. Neil scowls harder. “Noticed me around, have you?”

Neil outright glares at the annoying fucker who’s messed with his schedule for the past four months. 5A’s smirk seems to transform into more of a genuine smile as his eyes rake up and down Neil’s body.

“I don’t know how I’ve missed seeing you around,” 5A says, taking a step towards Neil and then dropping to the floor next to him with an impressive combination of grace and laziness. Neil can’t help but watch in fascination. “You’re not one to overlook.”

Neil scoffs, but he’s starting to wonder if he really has hallucinated months of this guy watching apathetically as Neil runs hopelessly towards the closing doors. Thinking back to this week alone, though, he’s definitely been at least five minutes late back from his run twice. His scowl deepens once more.

5A’s still looking at him intently, his brown eyes surprisingly interesting up close, all flecks of different shades of color, even in the darkness. Really, it’s more hazel– and it doesn’t matter, of course not, not even when his gaze seems fixed on Neil, as it meanders towards Neil’s mouth. Does he have something in his teeth? Or– there’s no way–

“Are you _hitting_ on me?” Neil blurts out. 5A’s eyes open, and Neil hadn’t even realized they were half-lidded but _what the fuck._ _“Seriously?”_

5A straightens up and scoots at least a foot away, gaze skittering around the elevator.

“You started it!” 5A says, sounding indignant, after a minute of Neil trying to figure out how they’d gotten from open warfare to an almost-kiss so quickly. The words catch up with Neil and he frowns.

“How could I possibly have started it?”

5A rolls his eyes. “How about with the checking out, and then the whole indirect ‘I’ve been seeing you around’ and ‘I know where you live.’ It’s a bit creepy, maybe, but it also implies that you’ve been looking into me–”

“For sabotage purposes!” Neil interrupts. Seriously, what the fuck is going on? Will this elevator ever move again?

“Sabotage?” 5A repeats slowly. “What?”

“You know!” Neil exclaims. “For the whole elevator war thing!”

“Elevator war?” 5A echoes. “Wait, did you do this?”

“Of course not, asshole,” Neil grounds out, annoyed. “What would I have to gain? I’m inconvenienced as much as you are.”

“Given that I have literally no idea what ‘the elevator war thing is,’ it’s not that crazy an idea to throw out there!” Neil can practically feel the sass oozing from his air quotes.

“Don’t pretend not to know what I’m talking about! It’s as much on you as it is on me!” Neil pauses. “Actually, fuck you! You’re the one who started it!”

5A sighs and rubs at his forehead. “I have never seen you before in my life. Believe me, I would remember it. Tell me, what is it that you believe I’ve started?”

Neil cannot believe this guy.

“The elevator thing! Every morning between 6:10 and 6:20, you ignore me when I ask you to hold the doors open for me! It’s been going on for four months, dickwad, I’d’ve thought you at least knew who you were screwing over at this point.”

5A straightens up in the middle of Neil’s impassioned spiel and starts shaking his head.

“You’ve been having– what’d you call it? Elevator war?–with my brother, not me. I live with my twin brother.”

Neil scoffs. “Yeah fucking right you live with your twin brother. What, you thought you could spend months fucking with my schedule, and then the minute we’re trapped in an elevator together you’d make out with me by pretending to be somebody else?”

5A is looking at him incredulously. “Are you actually crazy?”

“You can’t gaslight me, fuckface!” Neil stands back up and wishes that the elevator would get a fucking move. 5A remains slumped against the ground. “I bet you’re just looking for more ways to screw with me.”

“That’s what I’m doing in one sense of the phrase,” 5A concedes. He pushes himself off the floor. “Why do you think I’d lie about having a twin? His name is Aaron and he’s a dick.”

“Hey, I haven’t understood your bizarre lack of empathy towards my schedule for four months,” Neil tells him. “I’m not about to pretend to get how your mind works now.”

Suddenly, the lights flicker back to life. Neil shuts his eyes and feels the elevator shudder its way upwards as though nothing had ever happened. He blinks and takes a minute to readjust to the glare. 5A is watching him with a mixture of bemusement and irritation.

“I can prove it to you when we get to the fifth floor,” 5A declares as the elevator groans past the third floor.

“Trying to lure me back to your place? Nice try.” He probably has a host of tricks to spring in there.

5A shrugs. “You wouldn’t have to come in.”

The doors ding open to their familiar hallway and Neil steps out. 5A speeds ahead to the closest door and bangs on it. Neil slows down, mostly curious how he’s going to play it when his roommate outs him for this ridiculous ruse.

“What do you want?” a voice growls before the door is flung open to reveal– 5A.

Neil blinks. Standing in front of him are twins, both short and blond and– oh shit, Neil’s an idiot.

“Um,” he says eloquently. The one in the door– Aaron?–squints at him with a suspicious frown.

“This is Aaron,” Elevator Guy announces with a bland smile. “I’m Andrew.”

“Sorry,” Neil mumbles, his eyes flicking between the two and trying not to die of embarrassment. He clears his throat. “Well, I’m sorry, Andrew. Aaron, you’re a dick.”

Aaron rolls his eyes and retreats to the apartment. Andrew leans against the door jam with a smirk. Neil fidgets under his scrutiny. But seriously– twins? Who’d’ve believed that?

“I can think of some ways you can make it up to me,” Andrew says. Neil blinks again as he parses through what Andrew is implying.

“Seriously? Even after I bitched you out for telling the truth?”

Andrew’s eyes trail up and down Neil again. Neil resists the urge to improve his posture. “You’re hot. You know how to argue. And you piss my brother off.” He shrugs. “Why not?”

“Um,” Neil says again. Could this day get any weirder?

Andrew tilts his head. “Or not. Whatever. See you around–”

“No! It wasn’t a no!” Neil sighs. “Sorry, I was just surprised. Um, I guess we could grab drinks or something?”

Andrew’s smirk reappears. “What’re you doing now?”

Neil glances back to his apartment doors and thinks of the Exy game he’s already missed half of. He shrugs.

“Wanna head to the bar down the street?” Neil nods and Andrew pulls the door behind him closed without saying anything more.

“We’re definitely not taking the elevator,” Neil says after a minute. Andrew huffs out a laugh.

“I don’t know.” He casts a thoughtful eye in its direction. “It _is_ where we met. Besides, I can think of some better things for us to do if we get caught in it again than arguing over whether or not we’re engaged in elevator warfare.”

And that, well– Neil can get behind that, he thinks, as he follows Andrew down the stairs.

(The next morning, Aaron grudgingly sticks a hand out when Neil starts running towards the elevator. The day after that, he doesn’t. Neil’ll take what he can get.)

**Author's Note:**

> always accepting prompts (esp AUs!) on tumblr at exysexual! :)


End file.
